Diet and Nutrition. Natural Health, and Healthy Living

Posted by Jacqueline Colclough

According to a new survey from the American Hospital Association (AHA), six out of ten hospitals in the United States are seeing a greater proportion of patients without health insurance coming through their emergency departments, while nearly half of hospitals reported that they have reduced staff. In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has released information confirming that hospital employment is no longer growing and that the number of mass layoffs for hospitals reported in February 2009 was more than double what it was a year ago.

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Posted by Jacqueline Colclough

On April 27, 2009, the American Urological Association (AUA) issued new guidelines on prostate cancer screening for men. Contrary to recent advice of other groups, AHA recommends that well informed men aged 40 and over who have a life expectancy of at least 10 years should be offered the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test in order to establish a baseline reading and that PSA testing should be individualized rather than a blanket annual test for any man aged 50 and over. These guidelines have been issued amid growing recent controversy regarding when men should start regular PSA screening, how often, and at what point a biopsy is indicated.

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As part of the recently enacted stimulus bill the federal government is spending $19 billion to promote the adoption of electronic medical records by physicians. Yet, with all the focus on doctors, lawmakers have forgotten the most critical piece of the puzzle -- patients.

Take the case of Joe (not his real name), a patient who came to see one of us recently. Joe is a thirty-something year-old with type 1 diabetes. After a rebellious few decades that included dozens of hospitalizations, he was finally re-engaged in his care. His most recent request -- to access his electronic medical record. Joe wanted to track his hemoglobin A1c, an important marker of his diabetes, follow his blood pressure and take a closer look at his cholesterol. After all, it is his information in the clinic's commercially available electronic medical record. Sadly, his request couldn't be honored. Patient-access features simply hadn't been built in.

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According to a recent editorial in the NY

Reconciliation. It’s an odd word for something that could precipitate a knock-down, drag-out fight in Congress, but the process that Senate Democrats agreed last week to adopt if health care reform legislation isn’t passed by October 15 was originally intended to reconcile differences among House and Senate budget bills. What the process does is to replace the usual Senate requirement of a three-fifths majority—needed to end a filibuster, but also consistent with Senate traditions of compromise—by a simple majority.

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Posted by: Salvatore J. Zambri, Esquire and Catherine Bertram, Esquire

The Washington Post reported moments ago that Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley has stated that there are now six "probable" cases of the swine flu in the state.

Posted by Jacqueline Colclough

Amid international efforts preparing for a possible pandemic due to growing numbers of confirmed cases of A/H1N1 influenza virus, or swine flu, investigations are raising more questions than answers. Is this swine flu? How did it start, and how lethal is it? According to CNN.com, the United States has now suffered its first fatality from swine flu – a 23 month old child in Texas.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is sending a team to Mexico to investigate the connection between pigs and this virus. Until findings are reported, however, there is no evidence that this latest new strain is actually swine flu and that it started in pigs. Joseph Domenech, chief veterinarian of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, said in an interview on BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight that one of the goals the investigators will be pursuing will be to rule out the possibility that pigs were involved in the genesis of the new virus, and also to establish an appropriate response to the possibility that pigs may catch the virus from humans. Domenech said that all we know is that the virus contains pieces of genes from "human, avian and pig origin", and "this crisis should not have been named swine influenza".

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I had a lovely time at the AAHM conference this past weekend, and while there, learned more about the fabulous work the NLM History of Medicine Division is doing. Their latest effort is the launch of an entirely new platform for their premier database in the History of medicine. Here are the details:

Using award winning software developed by Luna Imaging, Inc., NLM offers greatly enhanced searching and viewing capabilities to image researchers. Patrons can view search results in a multi-image display, download high resolution copies of their favorite images, zoom in on image details, move images into a patron-defined workspace for further manipulation, and create media groups for presenting images and sharing them via e-mail or posting on blogs.

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Posted by: Amy S. Gurgle, Esq.

While it is not surprising that language barriers can create problems for doctors communicating with patients, a new study published by the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that "doctors' assumptions about communication -- what they deem important in communication -- may also have a role,"

First, if you're not blogging for your medical spa,